Last month we looked at the genius of Josiah Wedgwood, the modest potter who transformed Staffordshire. This month, we look at his contemporary and namesake: Josiah Spode (whose son was also called Josiah). Born just three years after Wedgwood in 1733, Josiah Spode was apprenticed to the same Thomas Whieldon with whom Wedgwood formed a partnership only a few years later.
Spode came from a poor family; his father died young, so Josiah had to climb his way to the top. His